Prince Andrew; Virginia Roberts Giuffre.Photo: Alexander Koerner/Getty; Emily Michot/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty
Court filings on Friday revealed that Andrew was served at 9:30 a.m. on August 27 at his Royal Lodge residence in Windsor. Just before news of Andrew being served broke, Giuffre’s lawyer accused the Duke of York, 61, of dodging servers.
“Process servers have shown up at his residence, and they have refused to take the summons and refused to let the process servers in to serve,” David Boies, chairman of New York-based law firm Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, said, according toABC News. “He has stopped coming out in public. He has been moving around.”
Earlier this week, photographers captured Prince Andrew traveling to Balmoral Castle in Scotland, where the Queen is on her summer break. Andrew alsotraveled to the Scottish royal residencewith his ex-wifeSarah Fergusonone day after the lawsuit was filed on August 9.
Giuffre hasaccused the royalof forcing her to have sex with him three times between 1999 and 2002 — accusationsQueen Elizabeth’s son has refuted.
Looking forward, the first, virtual court hearing in New York City is scheduled for Monday; it’s currently unclear whether Andrew will attend.
Prince Andrew.STEVE PARSONS/POOL/AFP via Getty
In a statement shared with PEOPLE on August 9, Giuffre said that her attorney filed the suit against Prince Andrew under the Child Victims Act.
Boies previously told the U.K.‘sMail on Sundaythat Prince Andrew failed to respond to offers to settle her claims out of court.
Prince Andrew.Alastair Grant/WPA Pool/Getty Images
Prince Andrew said in a2019 BBC interviewaddressing his relationship with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein and Giuffre’s allegations, “I have no recollection of ever meeting this lady, none whatsoever. It just never happened.”
Speaking specifically about Giuffre’s claim that he danced with her at London’s exclusive Tramp nightclub before allegedly having sex in a mansion in the upmarket Belgravia neighborhood, the duke said, “No, that couldn’t have happened because the date that’s being suggested I was at home with the children.”
Andrew — who is father toPrincess BeatriceandPrincess Eugenie— added, “I’d taken Beatrice to a Pizza Express in Woking for a party at I suppose sort of four or five in the afternoon. And then because the Duchess was away, we have a simple rule in the family that when one is away the other one is there. I was on terminal leave at the time from the Royal Navy so, therefore, I was at home.”
Samir Hussein/WireImage
Now that a civil action has been filed, Prince Andrew may be forced to be questioned under oath and turn over texts, emails and private letters related to the case.
Sigrid McCawley, managing partner at Boies Schiller Flexner, previously told PEOPLE: “The filing of this complaint proves that irrespective of power, privilege or even being a prince, no one is above the law in the United States and all perpetrators of abuse should be held accountable.”
source: people.com
